The Arrival of Very Small Memory

Roland Piquepaille writes "After the ages of DRAM and SRAM memories, is this time for nanotech memories? ExtremeTech says that "molecular memories" as well as memories based on carbon nanotubes are emerging. With these nanotech memories, several startup companies are envisioning future chips mixing logic, memory and reconfigurable computing elements. One of these promising startups is ZettaCore, which has built a prototype of a molecular memory designed to replace both SRAM and DRAM kinds of memories. These molecules, which are about 1 nanometer in size, are also self-assembling, meaning that they can be manufactured with existing equipment used in the semiconductor industry. This overview contains more details about the technology and includes a diagram of these molecules in a memory array."

Comments

Very small memory?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, what were you talking about?

Perfect for 64bit computing.

[Krik Johnson]

64 bit computers can have up to 18Tb of RAM, but with motherboard physical limitationss it iss not possible. Even with 4Gb dimms (which are expensive) your lucky to get more than 16Gb out of standard motherboards. With this technology, We will be able to break this barrier, and do wonderful things in small spaces.. I for one, welcome my 18Tb Dimm!

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[millahtime]

"18Tb of RAM"

The problem I would see with this is the addressing of the ram. You couldn't use straight pins to do that high of number for addressing and what speeds would the buss work at. There are other limiting factors on how much ram you can really work with.

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[DrEldarion]

Sheesh, what the hell would you do with 18Tb of RAM in a desktop computer?

"18Tb of RAM should be enough for everyone!"

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[TwistedGreen]

Mental simulation. Synthetic intelligence. Your computer would be powerful enough to not only do flat speech recognition, but would be able to have its own natural language engine... all processed in real-time.

Sweet.

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[selderrr]

eum, I don't want to disapoint you, but none of these is currently RAM bound. Current connectionst models require far more CPU power than memory to keep all nodes updated. Real-time is a distant future. Even non-realtime AI is currently more stupid then my 3 month old daugther.

Right

[Operating Thetan]

With these nanotech memories, several startup companies are envisioning future chips mixing logic, memory and reconfigurable computing elements

Do they mention if the CPU and motherboard manufacturing companies care? Technology succeeds because of marketing, not because it's innovative or high quality-witness Betamax,

Already being done with conventional technology

[Space cowboy]

Xilinx have silicon with embedded PowerPC processors, BlockRam (chunks of pre-generated SRAM) and huge swathes of FPGA cells and interconnect. The chips have other abilities too - built-in 18-bit multipliers and communications channges (10 Gbps/channel, 20 channels!). All very cool stuff. Very expensive too :-(

I'm sort of surprised there aren't more FPGA-hackers than there appears to be. It's not hard to learn verilog (very similar to C), and despite what most FPGA designers will tell you, as long as you keep your mind focused on 'everything happens in parallel', a decent programmer can produce good FPGA code too. The start kits (300,000 gates, about enough for a hardware JPEG core and maybe a network MAC) are cheap (100 or so), and designing a processor is a pretty simple operation, and immensely gratifying :-)

Just my thoughts,

Simon

Emerging technologies

[zazas_mmmm]

Nanotech memory is very exciting, but there's a lot more than the technology itself that determines whether it's the next big thing. So far all I see is a weblog with some basic diagrams of how it works and some serious brochureware at Zettacore.

Not to state the obvious, but it will take low manufacturing costs, industry willingness, consumer demand, and a whole lot of marketing before this or any other revolutionary changes become de facto standards.

Better, smaller, faster, is no match for cheaper, more accessible, and well-marketed.

Non volatile?

[MrIrwin]

Unlike SRAM, which requires a charged state to be maintained, and DRAMS which reuire continuous refresh, these devices would appear to permanently change a molecular structure.....i.e. they would seem to offer high speed read write non volatile memory.

This could not only increase RAM but mean we have computing devices with just one big memory pool...no Flash, no Disk, no CD, no DVD.........

Can I order mine now please?

It's quite obvious

[revolvement]

No one will ever need less than 640mm of memory

The size factor won't change much

[digrieze]

Except for embedded devices like cell phones and pdas, this won't change much. The memory density may go up, and since the chips are thinner the heat problem may improve, but the size of system chips won't change.

The reason is simple, human fingers and hands aren't going to shrink. SDRAM cards are about as small as most people can handle comfortably. SDRAM chips for CPUs work very well not at holding chips but at being easy to install and make positive contact with a large number of contacts on a relatively small edge. The design factors for these things are many, the chips they carry are only a single one of them.

I suppose someday it'll be theoretically possible to put that monster gamer machine in a thinline dress watch, but as they found with the "databank" watches the limitations are the input/output devices average people can comfortably work with, not electronic capabilities.